Sergeant Mike Cherven Sr. joined the State Police in 1974, as a member of 59th RTT, after being honorably discharged from the Army’s Green Berets as a Non-Commissioned Officer. His career as a “road” trooper took him across Central Massachusetts and back home to the Foxboro barracks.

After 10 years of patrol, Trooper Cherven was assigned to the State Fire Marshal’s office as an investigator. An opportunity came his way for an accelerant detection K-9, which was to be the first in Massachusetts State Police history. Corporal Bob Corry and Trooper Cherven were trained as dual handlers for Sergeant Hulk, the state’s first arson accelerant detection canine.

Eventually, Bob would be promoted to Detective Lieutenant and Mike was the sole handler of Sergeant Hulk. Trooper Cherven and Sergeant Hulk worked numerous high profile arson cases throughout the entire state and at times throughout New England.As a testimony to the success of Sergeant Hulk, the State Fire Marshal’s office now deploys five arson canines and five explosive canines in Massachusetts.

In 1994, Trooper Cherven was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and transferred to Troop C, Holden as the evening shift patrol supervisor. On July 13, 1995, Sergeant Cherven went for a run, as he did numerous times each week and collapsed due to a heart attack. Sergeant Cherven is survived by his wife Robyn and sons Trooper Mike Cherven, Jr. who is assigned to the State Police Barracks in South Boston and Trooper Derek Cherven who is assigned to the State Police Barracks in Belchertown.8

The mail-in deadline for submission of the 2020 application is 5/19/2020.